There's a dirty little secret about inbound marketing and you won't hear it from most of those who sell digital marketing software and services. The reality is that getting results with inbound marketing is much more difficult than it was just 3 years ago. Why? Quite simply, the explosion of businesses using inbound marketing has stepped up the competition for the attention of potential buyers. If you need proof, check out your email inbox. If you're like me, you'll see a seemingly endless stream of marketing emails - many from companies I've never heard of. Business blogs have proliferated too - some good, some downright awful. With the explosion of content marketing, it's becoming tougher to connect with potential buyers.
The privacy backlash spawned by the revelation of the depths of the NSA's overwatch over citizens has also made inbound marketing more difficult. For example, Google stopped sharing information on what search terms produced traffic for your site in September 2013. This was the latest in a series of changes made by Google to force marketers to stop using manipulative SEO techniques to drive site traffic. In my opinion, this is a good thing. It's forced business to stop writing for search engines and start writing for people.
Producing good content that resonated with your targeted audience used to be the formula for inbound marketing success - but now it's not enough. With the sheer volume of content competing for the attention of your potential buyers, you need to rise above the noise. If you're a familiar brand in your marketplace and you've been using inbound marketing for a few years, you probably have a decent audience for your content . If not, you need to get creative. Here are 4 tips to get noticed by potential buyers.
Promote your content marketing with paid advertising
You can create a great piece of content that is incredibly useful to your target audience only to have it sit on your website unnoticed except for a small group of people who stumble across it. It takes time for Google to index your site and the topic of your content may be highly competitive. This is particularly true for those in the beginning stages of a digital marketing effort.
Paid advertising, whether on search engines like Google or social media sites, is a great way to get your content in front of the right people. If your target audience is on LinkedIn, try promoting your latest blog article with a sponsored update. You can choose the audience you want to reach by geographic region, seniority, industry and company size. Twitter, Facebook and Google+ also offer paid advertising opportunities for those whose target audience spends time on those networks.
Likewise, you can use paid search engine advertising like Google Adwords to drive traffic to content that resides on your website. When you use paid advertising to promote your content, pay careful attention to the anayltics provided by the media channel to measure the return on your investment and to optimize your future paid advertising.
Focus on niches
Unless you're a large, well-established company, it's almost always best to focus your marketing on a targeted niche. The same applies to your inbound marketing approach. Rather than creating content on "how to reduce healthcare costs", try "how to reduce healthcare costs for accounting firms." This content will resonate far more with your target audience than a generic piece targeted at the universe. It's also more likely to be found by your target audience because the competiton for the "long-tail" keyword phrase is less than that for the generic equivalent.
The ripple effect of creating good content for a targeted industry niche can be significant. If the owner of an accounting firm finds your content helpful, it's likely that she will share it in forums where other accounting firms spend time. Although it's counter-intuitive to many, focusing your content on niches where you have experience will produce better results than trying to be all things to all people.
Leverage friends, colleagues, vendors and partners to promote your content marketing
When you produce that great piece of content, reach out to your friends and business associates to promote it within their circles. This is particularly important as you're building an audience. Keep in mind that it's a two-way street and offer to promote their content in return. Be proactive about it - don't sit around waiting for someone to share your blog article on LinkedIn!
You should also work on getting industry influencers to share your content. This is often a "give to get" situation - you will have to share their content and be helpful to them before asking for their help. Follow them on social media channels and comment on their content. Once you've developed a relationship, you can see if they will share your content. Make sure it's great before asking!
Don't be afraid to take a stand
It's not something you want to do with every piece of content you create, but a good old-fashioned rant will get people's attention. Find a controversial topic in your industry and take a stand on it. I wrote an article in April 2013 titled, "Why Social Media Marketing Is More Effective Than PR." If you care to read the article, you'll see that I took a few shots at some fatted calfs of the industry. Some of the PR folks weren't so amused. The article created a lot of traffic and leads for my website and was picked up by Social Media Today, where it generated a second wave of notoriety.
Again, you probably don't want to have weekly rants as part of your inbound marketing, but taking a stand will help you stand out in a sea of blandness.
Summary
It's no longer enough to produce a good piece of content and hope for the best in your inbound marketing efforts. Businesses need to promote and distribute content through different media and channels to find what works best for them. Yes, it's hard, but don't throw in the towel - if you focus on creating good content and use the tactics detailed in this article, you'll drive positive business outcomes with your inbound marketing.
